Sunday, November 4, 2018

Sorta Smiling While Trying to Unskew My Chi


As authorized by the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, yesterday I headed to the Kissimmee Civic Center and voted.  It was the only thing I could do to try to overcome the feeling of helplessness as I continue to watch my country fracture, and then sink.  Voting is an imperfect solution to an overwhelming problem, but it should never be overlooked or ignored. I am enough of a cynic to believe that “honest politician” is an oxymoron, but still I persist in the voting ritual. It is, after all, the American way.

I haven’t been feeling great lately, as my fibromyalgia continues to bubble.  It’s been an even burn, meaning there haven’t been any acute localized sharp pains, but instead a chronic medium-level pain everywhere. Tai chi has been at least as helpful as Meloxicam, and much kinder to my digestive system, although my hyper mobile knees have been fighting back lately. No matter how carefully I position my lower spine so that I can gently bend my knees, that nasty old Ehlers-Danlos gene insists on snapping them backwards. That, my friends, is bad tai chi. When I can’t get rid of the negative chi that inhabits my physical body, I have headaches, mini-panic attacks, nightmares, breathing problems, and some really stellar muscle pain. Then I have to rely on certain prescription medications, which I am convinced are playing havoc with my endocrine system, instead of relaxing to Chinese music while Playing The Lute, or White Crane Spreads Its Wings.

We have our annual before-tax-season-cruise coming up in just a few weeks. That’s the good news.  The bad news is that the Carnival Sunshine had a bit of a balance problem last week caused by a stabilizer malfunction and precipitously tilted over at an angle not normally reserved for 100,000 gross ton ocean-going vessels. Now I’ve had my share of cruises through near-hurricane conditions, including one terrifying trip trying to steer clear of Super Storm Sandy, and I usually wear Sea-Bands to effectively deal with motion sickness, but I have never seen dinner settings fly off the tables, nor watched most of  the water slosh out of the pool. I certainly have never thought we were having a Titanic-like experience, but that is exactly what occurred to a number of passengers. Fortunately the tip over was short-lived, but there was some minor injury and major cleanup. Apparently everything was back to normal within a few hours. Boy, I wish my personal stabilizer problems could be cleared up by the ever-efficient crew of the Carnival Sunshine.


Romeo and I are not looking forward to Monday’s vet appointment, because as we both know, there will be pain. He’s been unhappy since Friday, when I brought him in to Hunters Creek Animal Hospital to have his teeth and tummy checked, and the subsequent home administration of antibiotics, probiotics, and steroid medication.  He even peed on the bed, which he never does, to register his protest.

Very satisfactory side dish

Field of Greens

Other than cleaning up after our nominally pad-trained bunch, things here are pretty normal. We’ve managed to establish a holding position against The Great Ant Invasion of 2018, the occasional pesky palmetto bug, and a small rodent visitor with very sharp teeth, who fortunately limited his forays into a single cabinet under the kitchen sink, where we keep two large containers of dry pet food. No, he hasn’t managed to break into them but it isn’t for want of trying.  And on that note, I’m heading out to check on my garden. Yesterday I harvested a variety of greens - mustard, collards, kale, and one other I can’t remember - and cooked them with good stuff for a very satisfactory side dish. Today, maybe a baby romaine salad.

Always nice to catch up with you all. Be well, and VOTE 🗳

By the way, those are teen tiny micro mini GREEN BEANS!

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